John Edwards: Seeking the Top of the Ticket on 2nd Try

By JOHN O'NEIL

Published: March 12, 2007

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Been there, almost done that: One distinction John Edwards holds in the crowded presidential field is being the only candidate in either party to have been on a November presidential ballot, having served as Senator John Kerry's running mate in 2004.

At that time, he was Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, the youthful, handsome and eloquent (Bill Clinton said he could "talk an owl out of a tree") millionaire former trial lawyer whose own presidential hopes had faded in New Hampshire after a strong second-place showing in the Iowa caucuses. Having declined to seek re-election to the Senate while running in 2004, he left office early the next year.

Since then, he has run a center on work and poverty for the University of North Carolina law school, but has primarily worked on preparing for this year's campaign. Still strikingly youthful, Mr. Edwards tells audiences that he has matured and rethought his position on many issues, most notably Iraq.

Like Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, one of his chief rivals for the Democratic nomination, Mr. Edwards voted for the resolution in 2002 that authorized President Bush to use force in Iraq. Unlike Mrs. Clinton, he has acknowledged that the vote was a mistake. "I was wrong," he says. Mr. Edwards has proposed an aggressive approach to ending the war in Iraq, calling on Congress to pull 40,000 to 50,000 troops out immediately and to place a limit on military expenditures.

Putting his time off to good use, he has developed the most detailed policy proposals of any candidate, adding up to a call for what he terms "transformational change." Most of those proposals are to the left of those of Mrs. Clinton, who only a few months ago appeared to be his biggest obstacle to the Democratic nomination.

For instance, in pointed contrast to the incremental approach Mrs. Clinton and her husband pursued after the failure of her health care plan in 1994, Mr. Edwards has proposed a sweeping plan for universal health care, with a price tag he unflinchingly presents as more than $90 billion, most of which would be raised by allowing the 2001 tax cuts to expire for households earning $200,000 a year or more.

With a pro-union trade agenda to round out his progressive appeal, Mr. Edwards was on his way to becoming the chief alternative to the center-tacking Mrs. Clinton. But that was before Barack Obama made his move to enter the race.

Novelty clearly has it charms, but Mr. Edwards is also banking on familiarity being a virtue, particularly in Iowa, which he has visited more often than any other candidate, and in South Carolina, where he had his sole primary victory in 2004.

For his campaign manager, Mr. Edwards reached outside the usual ranks of political consultants to choose David Bonior, a former Michigan congressman who was a leader of labor-friendly liberal Democrats in the House. Another important adviser was his wife, Elizabeth, who had become better known through a best-selling book, "Saving Graces," published last September, about her struggle against breast cancer, which was diagnosed the day after the 2004 election.

The couple announced on March 22 that Mrs. Edwards's cancer had returned and was no longer curable, but she pronounced herself optimistic that it could be managed effectively with treatment, and Mr. Edwards announced that the campaign would continue.

As in 2004, Mr. Edwards continues to receive strong financial support from the nation's trial lawyers. It's a connection that is something of a mixed blessing, given the unpopularity of the profession and the suspicion among some voters in 2004 that the owl might have gotten snookered. Another contrast to Mr. Edward's folksy populism is the giant house he built recently outside Chapel Hill, which was described in press accounts as the largest in the county.

Mr. Edwards has a standard, if slightly acerbic reply, to questions about his house: "News flash: John Edwards has money."

And to polls showing him trailing Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama in national polls, he also has a ready answer: there's no such thing as a national primary, just a string of state votes. And in that kind of contest, someone who has done his homework and laid the groundwork for a few early wins can make up a lot of ground in a hurry.